Im searching around for a good in dash mp3-cd player for the holidays and i have stumbled across an alpine model that i cannot find any information on.
At first glance that features of the Alpine CDA-7893R sound really nice

Its the seventh one down

Normally i use mp3.com to scope out the user reviews of the latest indash players but they are only reviewing the best model ( the CDA-7878R) which considerably more expensive therefore out of the question for me. Has anyone heard anything about this line of decks from Alpine? I have already seen the horrors of the aiwa cdc-mp3 and the latest kenwood decks are still too expensive and still are lacking IMO vital features. The jvc has negative reviews in regards to the sound of its mp3 decoding codec.

Im still planning on someday slapping together a micro-pc for a hard drive based mpc player but until i get the funds together to invest into that im looking for a short term solution for my car based audio so i can quit beating the hell out of my cds. Anyways, upon searching the internet i couldnt find any reviews of any kind on the alpine deck im looking at so im wondering if anyone here has their two cents about it.

How about a good In-dash Vorbis-mp3-CD player?!?!?! =)

But on to reality...

I have a Sony MEX-5DI in my car which is sweet. Love it. The only thing better would be if I could play vorbis files on it. My wife & cousin love to ride shotgun & fiddle with it.

-Jeff

Believe it or not, the Jensen MP3 decks are fairly decent. They've played everything I've thrown at em, quick tracking times and decent enough sound. The only downside is that the display is a little cheap. But considering the low price, I'll take it.

from a personal note i would go with a alpine, i have the jensen mp3 player mp3310. i aint had nothing but troubles with it only had it for around 2 months and i started getting errors. first the volume would automatically start dropping , that after it wouldnt go down any farther you could hear it beep. if that wasnt bad enuff a week later i started getting error 1. another prob i had with it , it wouldnt play half my --alt-preset-standard mp3z. the package said it could handle up to 320k bitrate and vbr. guess not , so from personal experience i would not buy jensen again , maybe with their other mp3 model they fixed some stuff i dunno.
the reviews on circuit citys page also shows the same errors. so from now on its all alpine or pioneer for me.

p.s. since almighty walmart wont take it back , its now on its way to the local pawn shop

Hey, I had the 5510, no probs. I guess it's all about quality control.

I have the JVC SH-99 unit. It plays all my alt preset (VBR) mp3s, even in an airborne truck, without skipping. I kid you not. All four wheels off the ground, and it didn't skip. I was amazed.

Anyway, it sounds great (the 99 has a Burr-Brown DAC or something like that which the newer 909 does not) and it isn't too disco-y, if you know what I mean. I hate disco displays.

It also picks up where you left off on an mp3 if you turn off the car, like the CDs do. This is really nice when you are playing a 124 minute ravemix mp3 while making lots of quick stops. I would hate getting 15 minutes into an mp3 just to have it start at the beginning everytime.

I prefer this unit to any other I have seen. And check out that link. Only $267!

I also stronlgy recommend the JVC-SH99. It plays all files, supports ID3 and best of all, you can arrange your music into 12 folders (01-ALBUM1, 02-ALBUM2, etc) and by using the 6 preset buttons, you can instantly change folders... kind of like a 12 disc changer off of one MP3 CD. You press briefly for 1-6, hold a bit longer for 7-12.

This is the best out there so far, in my opinion.

PS... it's silver color with red/purple lighting matches VWs and Audi's perfectly.

Hmm, i like the sound of the JVC and i like that it still has preouts in case i decide to expand my system later. I hadnt really given this one much of a glance. The price is right. Anyone else have any further comments on this model?

I've had both JVC KD-SH99 and KD-SH909 (1 year newer) models and the newer 909 has a much bigger dot matrix area in the display, a little nicer colour of metal on the faceplate, but the older 99 seems to have a different/better mp3 decoder in it. Unless my 909 was a lemon, it sounded harsher and slightly more distorted than the 99. I went back to the 99 and sold the 909. I've been nothing but happy with the 99, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. The 3-band quasi-parametric EQ is more than enough for my setup. The built-in low-pass for the sub output is decent, though it mixes the sub-bass to mono. I don't like that at all, I'd rather have it remain stereo. It sounds very odd when I'm listening to some stuff that has out of phase bass and it ends up not making any sound at all. The 100% cancelling that occurs with the mono-mixed sound is a lot worse than the not-so-perfect cancellation that would occur in the air if the subs were actually allowed to reproduce the out-of-phase signals. Other than that I have no real pet peeves with it, plays every mp3 I've ever thrown at it. So if you can still find a KD-SH99, grab it, it's slightly better than the newer KD-SH909.